ATHENS, March 25. /TASS/. Russia’s proposals for NATO countries on introducing a reciprocal moratorium on deploying intermediate-and shorter-range missiles in Europe to follow Moscow’s example remain unanswered, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Thursday.
It was the United States as the key stakeholder in NATO that quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, "thus ruining one of the key elements of present-day European security," the senior Russian diplomat said.
"NATO ignores the Russian proposals on introducing a reciprocal moratorium on deploying this type of missiles," he said.
It was reported in September 2019 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had put forward a proposal to the leaders of some countries, including NATO member states, to introduce a moratorium on deploying intermediate-and shorter-range missiles in Europe and other regions. However, the United States actually rejected this initiative.
On October 26, 2020 Putin re-addressed the NATO member states with this initiative and reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to the moratorium as long as similar US-made missiles did not appear in the corresponding regions. The Russian leader also outlined specific options of de-escalation in the wake of the INF Treaty’s termination.